Keir Starmer’s broken promises would be funny if they weren’t so sick (Image: PA)
So what took Tulip Siddiq so long to resign? And why was she even allowed to take the “honourable” way out?
Why hadn’t Starmer kicked her backside out of office, or at least suspended her, when the stories first broke about our anti-corruption minister being at the heart of an international corruption scandal?
Because frankly it’s not a good look.
Could it be because she’s very close friend of Sir Keir (he handpicked her for the job) who might have thought the whole thing might just blow over and his “mate” would just carry on regardless? Because that’s what it looks like to the British people who are sick to the back teeth of the scandals engulfing this Government.
And every time a new one is unearthed Starmer’s initial reaction is “nothing to see here”. When of course there always is.
But his inaction here (all to protect his friend) is beyond shocking for a man whose Number One priority is supposed to be Britain, its people and its reputation.
If Starmer had been any kind of leader he’d have seen how tacky and damaging this Siddiq scandal looked for his Government and he’d have at least sidelined her until she was found guilty — or not.
The fact he did nothing shows him to have zero judgement. Actually I’m wrong — he DID do something. He made a bad situation even worse by saying he accepted her resignation “with sadness.”
Why sadness? Why the Hell wasn’t he fuming about a controversy that was making his Government look complicit and tacky? This woman’s name had come up in two corruption investigations in Bangladesh and her family’s connections with the dodgy side of Bangladeshi politics are widely known. So why was she ever given a Government job in the first place?
And Starmer can’t pretend he didn’t know about Siddiq (MP for Hampstead and Highgate) and her family because he was alerted to problems with her by Channel 4 news in 2017 and some of his own constituents even wrote to him saying it wasn’t appropriate for her to be a Labour MP because she’d concealed her family links to an oppressive, tyrannical regime in Bangladesh.
Well, now it’s all come back to bite him on the backside and it highlights his catastrophic lack of judgement. And surely he must embarrassed that his own ethics advisor, Sir Laurie Magnus, had to publicly state how “regrettable” it was that Siddiq “hadn’t been more alert to the reputational risks of her family ties to the deposed former PM of Bangladesh” (her aunt, Sheikh Hasina).
He also described as “regrettable” (many will think it’s a damn sight more than that) the fact that Siddiq wasn’t able to produce evidence that the and funding arrangements for the houses she used here and which were connected to her aunt, were in order.
Even the Institute for Government said that having been so quick to criticise the last Government over its failings and its integrity Starmer and his Party had to show they were capable of meeting the standards they’d promised to uphold in office.
Because they haven’t. They haven’t even come close. Even the former transport secretary, pink-haired who it was discovered had a fraud conviction had to resign.
Starmer didn’t sack her either. Plus she left with £17,000 severance pay which is an insult to taxpayers! Sorry, but this Government stinks!
Siddiq insists she isn’t guilty of anything which remains to be seen but if she’d had a shred of respect for her office she’d have referred herself to the Independent Advisor, Laurie Magnus, long before this week when she only did it because her position had become untenable and there was no choice.
But if Siddiq thinks things are going to quieten down for her now she needs to think again. The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammed Yunus, a Nobel Peace prize-winning economist, says her name has emerged in two major investigations.
Yet still Starmer says the door to government will remain open to her. Seriously??? Does he not understand the anger of the British people over this? Does he not understand how serious it all is?
If Siddiq had been a Tory minister not Labour one (and not his very good friend) he’d have been screaming like a banshee for her to be sacked.
Remember, Starmer’s the bloke who before the election sold himself as a beacon of morality, integrity and transparency. And he promised to drag politics here “back to service and back towards the interests of working people”.
Really? So what about the working people he’s already screwed — the farmers, small business owners, the workers who are being laid off because of Reeves tax rises, parents who have had to take their kids out of fee paying schools and throw them into our overcrowded state schools?
Starmer despises and looks down upon working people. In fact this Government in its entirety is tin-eared and deluded. What else would explain the stupidity of Labour MP Natalie Fleet going on Newsnight after Siddiq resigned proclaiming how “thrilled I am that we’re upholding standards and that we are showing we are very different to the last government.”
It seemed to have escaped this silly bint’s notice that she was saying this after the government’s anti-corruption minister had to resign for being caught up in a corruption scandal.
Is everyone in this Government thick and stupid. Or do they think the British people are? Starmer never tired of screaming that the were all about sleaze. Well it took them 14 years to build up that reputation. It’s taken Starmer and his mob a measly six months.
He also promised to create “trust and probity” in government which seems like a sick joke now. How can any of us ever trust him or his Government. They blatantly lied about to us about what they were and weren’t going to do once in office. Then there was Freebie gate when we discovered Starmer and many of his mob had greedily accepted clothes, outings, holidays from their biggest donor, Waheed Ali who was rewarded with a pass into No. 10.
Then Starmer created a “chumocracy” by parachuting his mates and Party loyalists into high-powered jobs in the supposedly impartial civil service. And then he ignored numerous warnings about Siddiq and her dodgy family connections and made her minister anyway.
Trust? Don’t make me laugh!!!